Responsible management for NPP radioactive waste from production to storage - 5405

In France, EDF is operating 58 nuclear reactors and is decommissioning 9 other reactors. According to regulations, EDF is responsible of spent fuel and radioactive waste produced by these activities, from cradle to grave. The large range of waste features induces careful management, with limitation of quantities at the generation stage, recycling when it is possible, classification and use of suitable routes for the different categories of waste. Regarding short lived waste, management routes are in current operation for the large majority of the categories of waste generated both by power plants in service and during decommissioning. Final storage of short lived waste is achieved in deposits designed and operated by the French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency (ANDRA). In order to ensure long term adequacy of the final storages and to manage any change, EDF works on the design and the fits of throughout the entire route, in the framework of National Plan for the Management of Radioactive Waste and Material (PNGMDR). Regarding long lived waste, mainly related to reprocessing products of spent fuel, disposal development represents a major stake for EDF. EDF provides contributions in the different stages of this development project entrusted to ANDRA, in the framework of an agreement signed with the stakeholders and under control of the government. Knowledge in safety issues and in all the technical areas, especially in underground construction geological, allows EDF to provide optimized proposals in the public interest for the CIGEO (acronym meaning 'Industrial Center for Geological disposal') project whose purpose is to store high-level radioactive waste in deep geological layers